Police in the northern province of Lai Chau have detained a third suspect for the shoddy construction of a suspension bridge that collapsed and killed eight people in February.

Police announced that Hoang Dinh Van, deputy head of the Tam Duong District Project Management Unit supervised the construction of Chu Va 6 bridge and was arrested on July 31 for criminal negligence, Tuoi Tre reported.

Do Chien Thang, chief of the district project management unit and the son-in-law of the provincial Party chief has not been arrested despite promises from police that personal relations would not affect their investigative process.

Van’s lack of supervision and due diligence allegedly included allowing the contractor to bring in poor quality materials and disregard designs and technical protocols, the police said.

A criminal investigation into the accident began last month following a March report from the Ministry of Transport that cited a faulty turnbuckle and other technical errors for the collapse.

The 58-meter long bridge collapsed on February 24th as an entire funeral procession bearing a coffin was making its way toward a cemetery on the other side.

The group fell 9 meters into a ravine full of large, sharp rocks.

Three people died on the spot; five others died while being treated at a nearby hospital. 38 people were injured, 20 of whom seriously.

As part of the collapse investigation, the police arrested Nguyen Van Ky, 35, the suspended director of private builder Ky Hoa, and Bui Hai Son, a 33-year-old technician of Tam Duong project management unit, in May, for alleged technical violations that resulted in the collapse.

Police say Ky assigned incompetent supervisors to oversee the construction, while Son failed to catch the technical faults.

After the accident, authorities paid the families of the deceased VND50 million (US$2,370) each and the injured VND30 million ($1,422) each.